Sunday

At St. John Cantius I see CONFESSIONS before all Masses. No mention of confessions at Salt Lake City.

At St. John Cantius I see the EXTRAORDINARY FORM. No mention of that at Salt Lake City.

I see the Ordinary Form IN LATIN at St. John Cantius. No Latin in Utah.

It is good that Salt Lake City has Lauds and Vespers. Right? Wait! What do I see? So does St. John Cantius! And at St. John Cantius they have Compline and the Rosary!…. AND did I mention CONFESSIONS BEFORE ALL MASSES?

So… when I vote I’ll consider what goes on inside the beautiful buildings.

This competition is enough to drive an Art History Major crazy! I love St. John Cantius because (I think) there are relics of Bl Karl and many other saints there.
As a Californian I love the Missions and would choose to attend Mass at any of them over some grand Gothic or Baroque Cathedral.

Sorry, I love St John Cantius, but the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis is the absolutely most spectacular building I’ve ever sat foot in. With a setting like that even liturgical dance could be excused.

Mission San Juan Capistrano is one of the original bastions of faith established by Saint Junipero Serra in the founding of California. The Serra Chapel, where the saint actually sang the Mass, continues to offer Mass in Latin. The aesthetic appeal of the physical edifice is enhanced by the continuity and beauty of the Traditional Liturgy offered.

The Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano, aside from incorporating the chapel in which St. Junipero Serra said Mass, also proves that a church built near the end of the 20th century did not have to look like an airport departure lounge. The main church, completed in 1986, is beautiful, and the organ, while electronic, is excellent.

It looks like, in the Eastern Regional finals, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception won over St Patrick’s Cathedral in a buzzer beater. I shudder to think how the back page of the NY Daily News would cover that one.

I must say I am out of step with the majority of voters on so many of these selections. I dearly love St John Cantius, a real jewel both aesthetically and spiritually, but the Cathedral of St. Louis is hard to match as the most aesthetically coherent and beautiful cathedral in the United States (though the Cathedral of St Paul is not far behind).

I suppose my views are anything but objective in this case since I used to live in the Diocese of Salt Lake City and even sang with the choir at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, but I would like to make a few points in favor of SLC for the sake of friendly competition.

I’d like to point out that while the Archdiocese of Chicago sports a whopping 2,500,000 Catholics, the Diocese of Salt Lake City (a mission diocese comprising all of the state of Utah) boasts a mere 300,000 Catholics, which makes what their Cathedral has to offer perhaps more impressive considering their lack of resources.

Not to mention that the SLC Cathedral is home to the Madeleine Choir School, which is the only Catholic co-ed K-8 choir school in the United States, and the quality of liturgical music they provide is superb (their website is here: utmcs.org). Though they don’t have the EF Mass, much of their music is sung in Latin (so saying ‘No Latin in Utah’ above is inaccurate). Once again, all pretty impressive considering how small the diocese is. Their liturgy is very high quality.

So I think we can give the Cathedral of the Madeleine a little love. At any rate, I’m glad to see it’s doing so well as it is.

I wish I could cast an informed vote, but while I have been to daily mass at the cathedral in Salt Lake City, I have never set foot inside of St. John Cantius. I do recall the cathedral as some place I wouldn’t mind visiting again, though.

A quick question for our friends in Salt Lake City. Having seen the online panorama view of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, I was wondering if there is a High Altar. I noted the free-standing ‘Volks-Altar’ in the photo but saw neither a High Altar nor a Tabernacle. Are they both perhaps located behind the rood screen?

Hi Father Z, thanks for posting about my blog (Art & Liturgy) and the Church Madness competition! The whole site has been really fun to work on, but the tournament has been a blast. It has really struck a chord with people — as I write this, 8,800 votes have been cast in the final contest. Of course, as an longtime “Zed-head” the coolest part has been seeing my site linked here. Thanks for your support and interest!

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